QB drama: Pryor out-plays Flynn, the Raiders have a big decision to make, but will it matter much?

OAKLAND—It’s a distraction the Raiders don’t want, but maybe they could use a full-fledged Matt Flynn-Terrelle Pryor quarterback controversy right about now.

Just to distract attention from what they really are, basically, and how tough this season is almost certainly going to be.

And possibly to distract themselves from those inevitable conclusions, too.

That’s how badly the Raiders played for much of Thursday Friday night’s exhibition game against Chicago, that’s how poorly every facet of the starting units performed.

That’s how much better Pryor was than Flynn, too.

And that’s the massive task facing coach Dennis Allen, who has his hands full and now he has to do some hard thinking about his QB situation, too.

Pryor vs. Flynn? That’s better than fixating on the Raiders’ team vs. Anybody Else right now.

“I think obviously we’ve got to look at it,” Allen said after the game when asked directly if Pryor has possibly moved ahead of Flynn.

“I don’t think Matt played well in this game. Obviously I felt Terrelle came in, gave us a spark and played well.

“I think that’s something we’ve got to go and look at. I’m not going to make any decisions on anything, obviously, tonight…

“But it’s obvious Terrelle gave us a little bit of a spark.”

Yes, on the night first-round pick D.J. Hayden made his much-anticipated game-action debut, he was only a tiny footnote.
Hayden—who hadn’t played in a game since last November–looked very, very rusty at cornerback, got walloped by a couple of run blocks, and gave up a few big gainers.

But Hayden also stuck his nose into traffic to make a few tackles and generally wasn’t at all the worst or most passive Raider out there.

Who looked the worst? Well, that’d be anybody on the Raiders’ first-team offense, most especially Flynn.

The presumptive starting QB threw two awful interceptions and couldn’t move the team in four listless first-half possessions.

Or it could’ve been almost anybody on the Raiders’ first-unit defense, which gave up three touchdowns and a field goal in the Bears’ first four drives.

Before the Raiders could catch a breath or a break, Chicago had a 27-0 lead.

All that, of course, got the Coliseum crowd grumbling, and eventually bellowing for “PRY-OR!”

Guess who looked the best on this night? That’d be the putative back-up QB, a guy I presumed couldn’t seriously compete for the starting job because he wasn’t ready.

Well, if the whole team isn’t ready, maybe Pryor is the right guy, after all. He seems to flourish when everything else is sort of messed up, including his own offensive scheme.

If everything is going to be scattered, and if Flynn can’t hold up in the middle of it, then Pryor might be, at the least, an entertaining feature on a shaky team.

When Flynn was replaced by Pryor near the end of the first half, the fans roared. But Pryor immediately was thrown for a five-yard loss and almost threw an interception on his first pass.

Then the Pryor play-making started to happen: He drove the Raiders down the field to set up a long field goal by Sebastian Janikowski to close the first half and give the Raiders their first score.

In the second half, Pryor scored on a blazing 25-yard touchdown run, then set up another field goal and threw a 19-yard TD before his night was done.

Is that the same as doing it in a real game against a first-team defense geared up to stop him? No, it’s probably not even close.

But Pryor (who completed 7 of his 9 pass attempts for 93 yards and ran for 37 more) showed that he’s a live-wire on a team that’s otherwise trending towards comatose.

His electric play-making plus Flynn’s flat-line on Thursday should make the QB decision a lot more complicated.

It could be a big distraction, especially if Allen goes with the established veteran instead of the young wild-card.

Either way, it’s a necessary distraction. If you’re fixated on the strengths and weaknesses of the QBs, you don’t have to look at the other positions nearly as much.

the offensive line is so bad they may have to play Pryor, at least he can run for his life. Flynn is a sitting duck back there

Aziz

Its Friday, not thursday.

“That’s how badly the Raiders played for much of Thursday night against Chicago, that’s how poorly every facet of the starting units performed.”

Richard Golden

Everyone needs a job in this day and age but being such a skilled journalist why do you choose to write about the Raiders Tim? It’s obvious you dislike the team and given your expert journalistic talent I’m sure you can score a big time job on ESPN or Fox covering Wimbledon or the Olympics. Lets say the team is bad, does that mean the writers who cover them have to be also?

Steve Pauli

I think Tyrelle Pryor should be the starting quarterback for the raiders….. I mean if they kept him in for the rest of the game instead of Mc Gloin or whatever his name is we couldve had it. It was the same when the saints and raiders played Pryor did his job right then switched quarterbacks but Pryor is the future idol of the raiders.

Steve C.

Ricard Golden: “Waaahhh, mean sportswriter shouldn’t be allowed to tell the truth about my crappy team, it’s his job to lie to me and make me feel better”

Raider Bong

“Well, if the whole team isn’t ready, maybe Pryor is the right guy, after all. He seems to flourish when everything else is sort of messed up, including his own offensive scheme.”

i get what you’re saying, but this makes it apprear that TP would be a bad QB if the raiders were a good team. i dont know if theres a lot of logic to that.

if TP can make plays with a bad o-line, imagine what he could do with a good o-line, where defenses would have to respect the RB rushing the ball, and DBs wouldnt be crowding the box to get at the QB.

Ryan M

Richard has a point. Tim has been Raider bashing since i was a small child. You would think he would find another team to cover by now.

As far as the quarterback controversy; there isn’t one. Last nights game cleared that up. Prior with the ones!. … Like tim said, what do we have to lose.

IFHT

LOL!!! u guys who think Tim “bashes” the Raiders have u seen your teams record for the last 10 seasons? What have they did to make him praise them? Other than lose more games over that period than any other team in the NFL.

cajunkraut

You guys need a little primer about mobile quarterbacks in the NFL. I said before that if the Raiders had a decent offensive line and a healthy Matt Flynn, they’d do some winning. Maybe not as much as you’d like, because the rest of the team sucks so bad. Here’s why I think the way I do. Let’s just look back at last year. One of the most mobile and athletic quarterbacks in the NFL lost to, well, Joe Flacco. Nuff said on that one. How about Super Bowl XXXIV and Donovan McNabb, one of the most mobile of all. He got beaten by one of the least mobile of all, Tom Brady. How about Randall Cunningham? His mobility ended in a torn anterior cruciate. The problem is that mobility in an NFL quarterback doesn’t result in much in the way of winning, at least not championships. Who are the champions? Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach, Joe Montana, Steve Young, Joe Theismann, Troy Aikman, all not mobile, pro-style quarterbacks.

cajunkraut

Forgive me, y’all. I forgot Tom Brady, the Manning brothers and Drew Brees on that not so mobile champions list….